I was at another Noh theatre and music workshop last week. People might start to think I'm really into Noh.... and they would be getting it fairly right. I was already a couple of weeks into a Noh/ Kyogen workshop this winter, all the while asking myself what the hell was I doing learning something so new and far removed from the skills I should actually be perfecting, when I had an epiphany.

In Noh and Kyogen, there is a lead dancer (shite) that performs the movements as well as sings the opening lines of the songs (setting the tempo and "mood" if you will); there is a chorus who sing the main body of the song; and there are several musicians (mostly percussionists) - and all three of these groups need to pay attention and follow each other. It was all right there - musicians, dancers, song, tradition - Balé Techlorico.

For a performance form that barely registered on my radar two years ago, I have found some profound connections between Noh and the kinds of things I am trying to do with Balé Techlorico. To wit, here are some notes I took at this most recent workshop:

Are these notes about Noh? Or Balé Techlorico? They are one and the same, because I was noting the overlap in values between the two. And for what it's woorth, I'm not trying to compare BT and the art of Noh on a qualitative level. We've got another 1000 years to go before we've got something here....